Ethelbert Stauffer

Ethelbert Stauffer (May 8, 1902, in Friedelsheim – August 1, 1979 in Erlangen) was a German Protestant theologian and numismatist.

Life

In the 1930s Stauffer was a professor of New Testament Studies and director of Ancient History Studies at the University of Bonn. In 1943, he was removed from post because of his anti-Fascist stance, but returned in 1946. He undertook much research into the relationship between the Roman sources and early Christianity. He proved that the Easter liturgy does not follow the Gospel but the burial ritual of Caesar.

Stauffer was a Christian universalist, believing that ultimately all people would be saved. He believed that God's irresistible grace and will are destined to overcome even the most obdurate opposition. [http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/Utheo/Utheo-9e.htm] He also taught that divine punishment after death was real, but that it was not arbitrary or vindictive, but remedial and limited as to duration, essentially Purgatory. [http://www.strategicnetwork.org/index.php?loc=kb&view=v&id=10251&fto=1067&]

Martyrdom in Christian theology

In 1933, Stauffer put forth a thesis regarding the role of martyrdom in Christian theology (specifically Anabaptist theology). [cite journal |first=Ethelbert |last=Stauffer |journal=Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte year=1933 |pages=545-98 |title=Täufertum und Märtyrertheologie |language=German] [cite journal |first=Ethelbert |last=Stauffer |title=The Anabaptist Theology of Martyrdom" |journal=MQR |volume=XIX |year=1945 |pages=179-214]

According to Stauffer, in the period of post-canonical Judaism (since about 175 B.C.) a new viewpoint impressed itself on the then flourishing apocryphal literature: the idea that suffering and martyrdom for one's faith are the very meaning of the happenings of history, for a double reason: (a) they represent a causal necessity in the great fight between the divine and the satanic order. The great Adversary does not allow a pure realization of God's plan, at least not in this present aeon or world period. (b) Such suffering, however, serves at the same time a very great purpose: it ushers in the new aeon. Death becomes victory, martyrdom is an expiating sacrifice, and Satan will be overcome only by such nonresistant suffering. That was the teaching of Daniel 3 (the three men in the furnace) and of the Second and Third Book of the Maccabees (e.g., the story of the mother and her seven sons). In short, the apocalyptic, pre-Christian literature offers this double justification of martyrdom: causally it is inescapable, and teleologically ("what for") it is absolutely meaningful.

The New Testament continued this apocalyptic trend even further; the Cross becoming the very center not only of salvation but also the vindication of all martyrdom for conscience' sake. In fact the idea of Nachfolge or discipleship would almost be without meaning if it were not connected with such earthly tribulations. The believer's conflict with the "world" is the surest indication that the disciple is true to the master, testifying for another reality and preparing for the coming of the kingdom. Two figures of speech soon became generally accepted: the disciple must become a "soldier" [occasionally also called a "knight"] of Christ who "fights the good fight" to the bitter end, and secondly, baptism is called death just as death is a sort of baptism by blood.

Bibliography

* "Christus und die Caesaren", Hamburg 1952
* "Christ and the Caesars. Historical sketches" (translated by Kaethe Gregor Smith and Ronald Gregor Smith). London: SCM-Press, 1955
* "Jerusalem und Rom im Zeitalter Jesu Christi", Bern 1957
* "Jesus: Gestalt und Geschichte", 1957
* "New Testament Theology", 1963

References